Listen to ABC's Linsey Davis tie herself into knots while trying to cover the ball in Charleston that celebrated the 150th anniversary of South Carolina's secession from the United States. There was no escaping its motive: "South Carolina's declaration of the reasons for seceding mentions slavery 18 times." So the ball was pro-slavery, right?

Check out these unfortunate formulations: "Slavery, America's most toxic institution that the farms of the South became so dependent upon A century-and-a-half later, the war between Blue and Gray still casts a shadow in black and white: two sides still see this historic issue differently This war ended the tradition of slavery."

They were not farms; they were plantations. The "two sides" are not black people and white people; but white supremacists and everybody else. Slavery was not a tradition; it was an economic system.

Davis' conclusion was that "some" remain "prisoners of the past, wrestling with the darkest chapter in our nation's history." That haunted "some" is mealy-mouthed. She means the unreconstructed black-tie burghers of Charleston and she should say so.

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Each day, Andrew Tyndall blogs the three newscasts. He has been monitoring
television news for 20 years. He claims to be the only person on the planet
who has personally watched every single weekday network nightly newscast
since the summer of 1987. Other people go on vacation: he records them all
and logs the news he missed into his database when he returns.
three American broadcast television networks: ABC World News with
Charles Gibson, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and NBC Nightly
News with Brian Williams.

All external links on this site (unless otherwise indicated) are to free
advertising-supported streaming video of network TV news.

Each day, Andrew Tyndall blogs the three newscasts. He has been monitoring
television news for 20 years. He claims to be the only person on the planet
who has personally watched every single weekday network nightly newscast
since the summer of 1987. Other people go on vacation: he records them all
and logs the news he missed into his database when he returns.